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breaking news

Miami Dolphins adjust to new reality on offensive line with opening day near

Laremy Tunsil needs to play like a first-round left tackle for the Dolphins’ offensive line to be dependable this year. (Allen Eyestone/The Post)

PHILADELPHIA—Take a good look at the Dolphins’ starting offensive line when it takes the field against the Eagles for Thursday’s preseason game because this is probably the first and last chance to see it before opening day.

There’s a strong possibility it’ll be brief work, too, since the team is being highly cautious with center Mike Pouncey’s workload. Right tackle Ja’Wuan James could be on a limited snap count as well because of a shoulder injury. Much of the first-string offense, though, is expected to play the entire first half and perhaps the beginning of the third quarter.

Even with Pouncey returning, this isn’t the group the Dolphins envisioned when they sketched out their plans for the season. Ted Larsen was brought in to play left guard and he’s out long term with a torn biceps. Kraig Urbik would’ve been Plan B, but the team doesn’t expect him back from a knee injury until after the season starts.

The only solid, healthy pieces of the original intended line at the moment are left tackle Laremy Tunsil and right guard Jermon Bushrod. Pouncey and James aren’t fully themselves, and the leading candidate at left guard is Jesse Davis, who might’ve spent the last several months working on a farm if he hadn’t caught the Dolphins’ attention as a practice squad player last fall.

Davis is the likely starter Thursday in Philadelphia, but Anthony Steen and Jake Brendel should get significant playing time and still have a chance to overtake him.

The Dolphins don’t waste much time on wishful thinking, so they don’t think of this as the fallback to their fallback plan. This is their new reality on the offensive line, and coach Adam Gase thinks they’re “close” to settling in on these five to protect Jay Cutler as they move toward the Sept. 10 game against Tampa Bay.

“Now it’s trying to get Jay caught up, get those guys together and figure out what we’re going to do at left guard,” Gase said. “We’re rolling quite a few guys in there. When Pouncey’s in there, all of a sudden it starts looking like what we think it’s going to look like.”

Pouncey is always the cornerstone. He made it through just five games last season, but unsurprisingly, that stretch was the best the offense looked all year. Miami went 4-1 with 154.4 rushing yards per game, and Gase said Pouncey’s grades for those five games were the highest of any lineman on the team for the season.

Pouncey’s hip problems were one of many factors in the o-line’s instability last year. Branden Albert, apparently at the end of his career, missed four games. Two players the team eventually cut, Billy Turner and Dallas Thomas, started in Week 5 when Albert and Tunsil were out.

“Last year we couldn’t keep the same five starters on the field for two weeks,” Bushrod said.

It wasn’t quite that bad, but it’s easy to understand how it felt that way. In total, the Dolphins used seven lineups and the longest any of those stayed intact was four consecutive games. They played 10 different starters.

Though they survived all that tumult to go 10-6 and make the playoffs, they came into this offseason intent on being better prepared for those interruptions. Pretty much everyone outside the initial starting five has been training at multiple positions, and the first offensive player Miami took in the draft was lineman Isaac Asiata. He’s been working at both guard spots and center, but hasn’t progressed quickly enough to challenge the veterans for a starting job.

Unlike last season, the Dolphins’ are finding out early whether their cross-training has worked and their contingencies are dependable. Gase, as usual, remains defiantly confident that the line will be sturdy.

“I know the sky is falling, but it’s football,” he said. “This is what happens and we’ll adjust.”